General Motors Hiring 1,000 IT Pros In Atlanta

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General Motors plans to hire up to 1,000 information technology employees at a new Atlanta-area office, part of GM CIO Randy Mott's plan to rely on staffers instead of outsourcers for tech projects.

GM aims to add about 7,500 IT employees in all as part of its shift away from outsourcing , which GM has relied on for decades to do its IT work. That would give GM about 9,000 IT employees and 1,000 contractors. That mix is a reversal from the 90% outsourced IT formula that GM used in the past.

GM already has announced new technology centers in Warren, Mich., and Austin, Texas. It has hired about 700 people at those two offices. In addition, GM is hiring about 3,000 people who had been Hewlett-Packard employees working on GM projects under an outsourcing contract with HP.

GM plans a fourth U.S. technology center, but it hasn't disclosed the location. Mott says the locations are chosen to give GM a broader geography from which to recruit. Each center will work closely with 10 to 12 universities on recruiting, as well as look for experienced IT pros. GM already has Atlanta openings on its career website, and Mott says they hope to start interviewing as soon as next week. The center will be in Roswell, a northern suburb of Atlanta.

Tensions With HP?

Separately, HP filed a petition in a Texas court in December to depose two former HP executives who went to work at GM in Austin, Businessweek's Ashlee Vance reported. HP's filing says that 18 HP workers "resigned en masse and without notice" from HP's Austin facility and went to work for GM. HP has not filed any litigation in the matter but said it wanted to "investigate potential claims" because it expected more departures, and because one executive involved had a contract that prohibited him from recruiting HP employees. Mott is the former CIO of HP.

Asked about the petition, Mott said the move "feels very retaliatory and harassing to the individuals. But I think most people will see through that and talent will go where talent sees the opportunity." Mott added: "We're looking for talent, is the short answer, and we're looking for the best talent." Mott said the inquiry had nothing to do with HP's agreement to hire the 3,000 HP employees, and that that hiring was going smoothly.

Mott's big strategic bet is that this new IT team can automate more of the day-to-day operations such as running data centers, in order to free up people and money to develop new, innovative projects.

Mott said new employees will work across all of GM's technology needs, which include web technology to interact with dealers, customer databases, factory systems and technology that is in vehicles. GM is hiring across technology specialties including software development, databases and project management, he said.

Tech spending is looking up, but IT must focus more on customers and less on internal systems. Also in the all-digital Outlook 2013 issue of InformationWeek: Five painless rules for encryption. (Free registration required.)